Zambia
Earthquakes in Zambia, 2017–2026
From 2017 to October 19, 2026, USGS recorded 8 earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more in Zambia. None reached magnitude 6: the strongest was a magnitude 5.9 on February 24, 2017 (40 km E of Kaputa, Zambia).
The last 30 days · as of
USGS recorded no earthquake of magnitude 4.5 or more in the area the map frames in the last 30 days.
What the record holds
One earthquake here in these years is on NOAA’s list of significant earthquakes. NOAA records no deaths for it.
The events
- February 29, 2024Earthquake · M 4.779 km WNW of Mpulungu, ZambiaUSGS
- May 8, 2023Earthquake · M 4.782 km SSE of Mwinilunga, ZambiaUSGS
- March 11, 2022Earthquake · M 4.791 km SE of Mwinilunga, ZambiaUSGS
- February 27, 2017Earthquake · M 4.627 km ESE of Kaputa, ZambiaUSGS
- February 24, 2017Earthquake · M 5.940 km E of Kaputa, ZambiaUSGS · NOAA NCEI
Good to know
- An event counts for Zambia when it began inside its borders. Damage can reach across them.
- USGS counts are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
- NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
- Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
- A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
- The map frames the box around Zambia, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
- Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.
How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history